The applicant of this application has described in co-pending Israeli Patent Application IL 236484 a handheld ultrasound scanning system that can be owned and operated by private untrained individuals as well as by doctors and trained medical personnel and healthcare givers.
The system comprises a base that functions as a docking station for a smart device. The base comprises a socket into which the smart device can be inserted on its top side and ultrasound transducer elements, which are essentially integral with additional electronics, located on its bottom side as will be more fully described herein below. The base is provided with connecting elements suitable to connect it to the smart device.
When it is desired to perform an ultrasound scan, for example to monitor the activity of a fetus, the smart phone is turned on and an ultrasound software application is launched from the base or from the smart device or, in some embodiments part of the software resides on the base and part on the smart device. In other embodiments the application is downloaded from the cloud or transmitted from a communication station such as that of a mobile services provider or a satellite.
The base is now moved along the pregnant woman's abdomen and images or video generated by the ultrasound system are stored in a memory in the base or in the smart device for viewing and/or transmitting to a physician or hospital, as the case may be. In embodiments of the invention communication to and from the system can be via a unique IP address assigned to the base or by using the mobile number of the smart device. Therefore the physician, for example, can contact the base via any IP communication, using a communication channel (secured or unsecured) in order to send voice instructions to be heard by the patient for example, or to see the patient via camera in the device, or to instruct the patient to move the base in a certain direction in order to acquire images at different positions, or the physician can send still images or video movies from the base or the patient's smart device to a device controlled by him, such as, for instance, to a PC or a mobile device.
An exemplary embodiment of a base according to IL236484 is shown in FIG. 1, and is generally indicated by arrow 100. The base, in this embodiment, is provided with a cavity 101, which is suitable to house a smart device of given dimensions. This cavity, however, can, in other embodiments, be replaced by any other connection and positioning elements, suitable to keep the smart device and the base conveniently, reversibly, physically connected to allow said base and said smart device to be moved as a single unit, for example, the base can be provided with an enclosure to house the entire smart device. In the exemplary embodiment of FIG. 1, a socket 102 is provided in the lower part of the base, in which a connector (not shown) is located. The connector can be configured to electrically connect electronics of an ultrasound array located on the base. The connector can be, for instance, a USB connector such as used by an Apple iPhone, Samsung Galaxy, Sony Experia, etc., or a different type of connector as used by other phones such Huawi, Nokia, etc. or other connectors on smart devices, e.g. an audio jack or a Mobile Industry Processor Interface (MIPI) that can provide at least transfer of 10 images per a second or at a minimum 10 VGA resolution images per a second. The connector can also be used as mechanical alignment device.
Turning now to FIG. 2, the bottom portion of the device 100 of FIG. 1 is seen. On the bottom outer surface of device 100 is located an ultrasound transducer 103. Embodiments of the ultrasound transducer 103 as well as the electronics that operates the ultrasound system, which are located between ultrasound transducer 103 and the connector in socket 102 or in the smart device itself, are described in IL236484.
FIG. 3A shows a smart device 301, in this example a smartphone, fitted into the cavity in base 300. The connector in the socket at the bottom of the cavity may provide the electrical connection between the electronics in base 300 and smartphone 301 and/or the alignment between the smart device and the base. It is possible to exchange data, for example, patient number, time, medical records, etc. between the smart device and the socket. Additionally, the connector and the sides of the cavity connect the smart device mechanically to the base so that they can be moved together across a surface, e.g. a human's abdomen or chest, as a single unit.
The ultrasound transducer 103 described above could be replaced in all cases by suitable elements that are excited and generate pressure waves, such as single elements, an array of elements, a linear array, a focused array, a multi-dimensional array, i.e., a 1.5D, 2D and 3D array. The elements may be straight or curved with different shapes and can be constructed on a plane, a convex, or a concave surface. The transducer elements can be made from different materials such as, for example, Piezo, Piezo composite, and arrays made with known techniques on silicon based substrates, for example, CMUT (Capacitive micromachined ultrasonic transducers), PMUT (Piezoelectric Micromachined Ultrasonic Transducers), MEMS (Microelectromechanical systems), and NEMS (Nanoelectromechanical systems) and elements directly connected to the smart device.
The ultrasound system in IL236484 can be adapted to include any type of “smart device”. Examples of “smart devices” include smartphones, tablets, and micro and mini computers; however the term “smart device” should be interpreted in the broadest way to include each and every device that has the capacity to receive an input, to run software and, optionally, is provided with communication capabilities, such as Wi-Fi, WI-GIG, LTE, S-UMTS, HSPA+, advanced wireless communication, wired communication, mobile communication generation such as 4G, 4.5G. 5G, 6G, Bluetooth, cellular networks, and with any communication protocol that connects two independent devices.
As said above, in embodiments of the system the physician can contact the base via IP communication to send a message or voice instructions to be heard by the patient for example, to instruct the patient to move the base in a certain direction in order to acquire images at different positions or to instruct via a camera that is an integral part of the smartphone. While this arrangement is adequate to provide the physician with the images that he requires in many application, e.g. fetal monitoring, in other applications, e.g. cardiac monitoring, or lung monitoring, much finer control over the angle at which the ultrasound waves are directed towards the organ to be studied and also of the pressure and orientation with which the transducer is pressed against the patient's skin are crucial to the physician's ability to obtain useful information from the images. Such fine control is difficult to achieve using voice instructions from physician to patient.
It is therefore a purpose of the present invention to provide a way for a physician to remotely control the transmitting angle and pressure exerted against the skin of an ultrasound transducer array of an ultrasound scanning system that is handheld by a patient.
Further purposes and advantages of this invention will appear as the description proceeds.